Definition:
A person who flees his or her home to escape invasion, oppression or persecution.
Statistics:
- there are about 10.6 million refugees and 25.8 million internally displaced people (IDP) worldwide
- 75-80% of the world’s refugees are women and children
- Women and children refugees are vulnerable to violence and exploitation by military and immigration personnel, bandit groups, male refugees, and ribal ethnic groups
- Asia and Africa host the majority of the world’s refugees and 18.1 million IDPs
Personal Impact Story
Six days in the camp and already Hawa has five questions answered. Soon the form will be full and Hawa and her children will be granted asylum: a word she, at first, did not understand. Hawa thought when she arrived at the refugee camp that her children would have food, and that the fear would stop. But, the camp is filled with panic and the memory of cruel men from her own country who killed good men like her husband, and forced whole families from their homes. Men who killed and displaced entire families so their machines could tear apart the earth in search for oil.
One of the girls she met in the long line for food, the first person who smiled at her, asked Hawa where she was from. The girl was the first kind face in an unfamiliar and strange country, had fled from Sudan as well, with her uncle and brother. She told Hawa that if she and her children wanted safety inside Uganda, she would need asylum. That’s why Hawa agreed to visit the girl’s uncle who helped people like Hawa: women who couldn’t read or write. Asylum: that’s why Hawa agreed to his price, only because she needed his help to complete the form.
If Hawa had learned to read and write, she would have printed, in neat, clean letters of her own:
Name: Hawa Fentale
Sex: Female
Age: 24
Country of Origin: Sudan
Family Members: Husband (deceased)
2 Children (female: aged 3; male: 8 months old)
But Hawa cannot write. She can only look at the government form that weighs heavily in her hand and wonder what other questions remain. Hawa waits through the night unaware that there is a child growing in her womb, a child that does not belong to her dead husband. Between pangs of hunger and cries from her children, Hawa imagines what life will be like when her family is given refuge in Uganda, how as a stranger and a widow she will find a home. In the morning, she will bring the white government form to the girl’s uncle again and accept his price so she can answer another question.
*the above story is based on facts but is fictional, for actual statistics order 30 Days of Prayer for the Voiceless today
“The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.”
Lord, today I pray for the millions of refugees worldwide. Names I do not know, stories on a scale of tragedy. Lord, I ask you to show your mercy to women, children, and men who have been forced out of their homes to flee to foreign lands because of violence and corruption. God, I pray for intervention – divine intervention – into terrible areas of injustice, such as Sudan.
God, I pray that you will intervene through your church who is called to love others and to defend the cause of the helpless. bless ministries like International Justice Mission, PhotogenX, Samaritan’s Purse, World Vision, the Red Cross, and others who reach out to those in need.
Lord, I pray that China will be held ACCOUNTABLE for its involvement in Khartoum. I pray that people will be able to shed light and that there will be international pressure placed on Beijing. God, thank you for people who fight for justice and for the needy.
I pray that you will strongly convict and call into true submission and obedience the Muslim Brotherhood whose evil acts are destroying Sudan and so many lives. I pray that there will be an end to state-sponsored rape, torture, murder, and displacement. Reveal just how evil their acts are. I pray for a divine revelation to that evil regime or for swift judgment.
I pray for refugees in Kuma in Kenya, near the Somali border in a permanent place of displacement. Provide for the physical needs of the people; provide for their spiritual needs. I pray that there will be a move of God through the camp and its repective nations – not only of salvation but also of the Kingdom Gospel so that people’s hearts and lives are built up. God you can overcome the sin in peoples’ lives and you can heal disease, end poverty and restore peoples’ lives and their nations.